


Petsitting's Not So Bad

by Alphum



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics), The Flash - All Media Types, Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Dox is a Basenji, Kon is mentioned, Krypto is a Newfoundland, M/M, Meet-Cute, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:27:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25800595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alphum/pseuds/Alphum
Summary: Kon's out of town. Tim's his petsitter. Krypto doesn't realize that he outweighs Tim and almost sends him flying when he sees his best friend at the park. Luckily for Tim, said best friend's owner is really cute.Or: a Dalmatians leash scene meet-cute
Relationships: Bart Allen/Tim Drake
Comments: 7
Kudos: 82





	Petsitting's Not So Bad

Tim loved Krypto, he really did. He just hated how  _ much  _ of him there was. Krypto stood over three feet tall at the shoulder and was a solid 170 pounds of muscle, fur, and drool. He was more than half Tim’s height and had a good bit of weight on him as well. Tim was just lucky that the massive Newfoundland was as sweet and gentle as his owner.

Krypto bounded along at his side during his evening run. To get all of Krypto’s energy out, he had to take him on about four million runs a day. It was actually just two, but it felt like more. Tim liked running, he did, but giving Krypto a long enough run to tire him out was equally tiring on Tim. Tim had never slept as well as he had this week. Maybe he should get a dog.

Tim’s musings were cut short by Krypto going stock still in the middle of the path. Tim nearly wrenched his arm as the taut leash on his wrist jerked him to a stop. “Kryp?” He looked around.

Krypto’s gaze was locked on a dog across the field. He barked, making Tim jump. It was a loud, booming bark.

“Krypto! Hush!” He shushed him.

The dog across the field let out a warbley bark, jumping up on its hind legs.

Krypto let out another booming bark and then he was running. The leash tightened around Tim’s hand and wrist where he’d wrapped it and then Tim was running too, being more than half-dragged by Krypto as he sprinted across the grass.

“Krypto! No! Stop! Hey! Bad dog!” Tim tugged at the leash as he stumbled and tripped his way along behind him.

Krypto ignored him. He came to a sudden halt beside the littler dog and Tim finally stumbled to a stop. His arrested momentum continued to drag him forward and he finally tripped and fell to the ground beside Krypto.

“Hey Krypto! Hey boy!” The other dog’s owner had dropped to his knees and was buried in Krypto’s fur as he hugged him. “Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy??”

Krypto’s tail beat wildly against Tim’s head as he sniffled at the dog and their owner. Tim squinted his eyes against the flailing fur, trying not to get it in his mouth as he tried to catch his breath.

“Oh, hey! You’re not Kon!”

Tim looked up into a pair of gorgeous golden eyes. The man holding the other dog’s leash was smiling broadly down at Tim. He was wearing a Central City Cheetahs tank top and the dog leash was patterned with tiny lightning bolts. He was also talking again.

“Hi! I’m Bart! This is Dox! Yeah! Hi Krypto! Dox ‘n Krypto are besties! You must be dogsitting while Kon’s in Kansas!”

“Hi.” Tim blinked up at him because wow. Bart was gorgeous.

He had a fluffy frizz of chestnut colored hair that was held back with a handful of clips and ties-- none of it doing much good against the sheer volume of it. He was wearing yellow tinted wrap-around glasses that he pushed up on top of his head. He held out a hand to Tim. A ray of sunshine punched through the trees in the park to light up his profile like he was an angel.

Tim, feeling dazed, took it. He was promptly pulled upright.

“You okay there? That didn’t look too bad, but if you aren’t used to Kryp, it can be a pretty wild ride!” Bart’s hands fluttered around Tim, brushing him off.

Tim cleared his throat. “Yeah, I’m good. Thanks.” He ran a hand through his hair and straightened his shirt. Krypto’s leash was still wrapped around his arm and Tim took the opportunity to gather the excess length again.

“Soo,” Bart stepped back and rocked back on his heels, clasping his hands behind his back. He was too tall for that to look as cute as it did. “what’s your name?”

Tim blinked at him before the question clicked. “Oh, god, sorry, I’m Tim.” He held a hand out before realizing belatedly that it was covered in sweat, grass, and dog slobber.

Bart smiled brightly and shook his hand excitedly. He didn’t seem to notice Tim’s hand was gross. “Hi! I’m Bart!”

Tim didn’t point out that he’d already introduced himself. He was cute enough that he could introduce himself all day long and Tim wouldn’t complain. “Nice to meet you.” His mouth said automatically. Mentally he thanked his mother for all the years of etiquette lessons she’d drilled into his skull. Bart’s hand was sunshine warm against him and Tim could feel his pulse thrumming where his fingertips brushed against Bart’s wrist.

“Nice to meet you too!” Bart’s smile was infectious; Tim couldn’t help but return it. It made Bart’s smile even wider. “So, um, you taking Krypto on his run? You guys can run with us if you want!”

Tim glanced down at the end of Bart’s leash for the first time. Dox, he’d said. Dox was an average sized Basenji that was currently propping his front legs on Krypto’s shoulder to lick at his lowered face. Unfortunately, etiquette classes hadn’t covered this particular scenario. “Yeah.” He looked back up at Bart. “Yeah, I’d like that. I think Krypto would too.” He couldn’t stop smiling. 

Krypto looked up when he heard his name and boofed.

Dox yammered out a warbling noise and pranced in place.

Krypto looked down and wagged his tail at Dox. He dropped his weight down on his front paws, bringing his chest and head down but leaving his hips in the air. 

Tim recognized that stance. “Krypto, no--” But he’d barely gotten the admonishment out before both Krypto and Dox were moving. Dox dove at Krypto and Krypto lunged behind Tim and Dox bayed as he followed. Krypto switched from happy boofs to excited barks as he ran around Tim. The leash yanked at his poor shoulder again and Tim staggered forward into Bart.

“Oh my go--” Tim gasped but was cut off by Bart’s yelp of surprise as he lurched forward. Tim’s face smacked into Bart’s chest as a leash whipped around his knees, making him stumble.

“Oh jeez--” Bart elbowed him as his arm was yanked around Tim by Dox’s leash.

“Oop--” Another yank on Krypto’s leash meant Tim was practically hugging Bart now and then someone’s leash was getting pulled one way and gravity was pulling another and then no amount of grabbing at each other could keep them upright anymore as they fell into a heap just off the sidewalk.

Krypto barked happily and Dox let out a warbling howl of excitement. 

All Tim could see for a long moment was the Central City Cheetah on the shirt in front of him before Bart was lifting himself carefully off of Tim. For the first time, he wasn’t smiling. He was frowning in concern. “Jeez, I’m so sorry! Are you okay?”

Tim wanted to smack his brother Dick at the best of times, but right now Tim wanted to throttle him, because what came out of Tim’s mouth when he opened it was definitely his fault. “Isn’t it a little early to be falling for me?”

Bart blinked at him.

Tim blinked right back, slowly realizing what he’d just said. He could feel his cheeks going splotchy pink with impending embarrassment.

Bart  _ beamed, _ whole face crinkling with it as he laughed. “Us Allens are always fast!” 

Tim returned his smile, embarrassment fading away. “Sometimes that’s a good thing.”

“Oh jeez, we look like my knitting!” Bart laughed as he looked down.

Krypto’s blue leash and Dox’s red ones were twisted around their legs from knee to hip like something out of a rom-com movie. Bart leaned back as much as he could and Tim grabbed at Krypto’s ruff. After a second of squirming, he managed to grab his collar and pulled on it to make Krypto budge. He would have been nervous about unclipping the leash if Krypto weren’t so distracted by Dox.

“Thanks!” Bart had done the same with Dox’s leash. With a little slack, the leashes were easy to kick off, untangle, and reattach. “There we go!” He clipped Dox’s leash back in place.

Tim reached down and offered him a hand up this time. Dog hair and loose grass was stuck to both of their hands now but neither man noticed as Tim pulled Bart upright. Bart didn’t let go of his hand. Their hands stayed clasped between their chests. Tim licked his lips and didn’t miss when Bart’s eyes tracked the movement. 

“So,” Tim said.

Bart’s eyes flicked up to his. Without the tinted lenses they were still gold, but more brown than he’d initially thought. “So…” Bart repeated. 

“Do you want to get smoothies after we finish?”

Bart’s energetic bounce broke the tension between them and renewed both of their smiles. “Yeah! There’s a great little place across the park and like three blocks down that allows dogs too!” His smile was so sweet it almost made Tim’s teeth hurt.

“That sounds great.” Tim nodded. “As long as Krypto can behave himself.” He looked down at the dogs.

Dox was leaning against Krypto’s shoulder again. Krypto tilted his head at Tim.

“Hopefully they’ve gotten into enough mischief for the day, but probably not!” Bart laughed and finally stepped away from Tim, dropping his hand. Tim missed it already.

“Probably not.” Tim agreed. “Which way are we headed?”

Bart pointed and began to explain his running path, gesturing broadly to illustrate it. The dogs might be done getting into mischief, but Tim sure wasn’t.

**Author's Note:**

> daily fun animal fact: Basenji can't bark. The noise they make instead is called yodeling and im never not going to laugh about that
> 
> unbetaed and partially written whilst tipsy so hmu with any typos
> 
> if you liked this leave me a comment and let me know! <3 <3


End file.
